{"id":1105,"date":"2020-07-29T13:47:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T13:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/?p=1105"},"modified":"2020-07-29T13:48:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T13:48:03","slug":"in-crisis-morning-update-wednesday-07-29-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/?p=1105","title":{"rendered":"In Crisis Morning Update Wednesday 07\/29\/20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Attorney General Barr defends law enforcement response to nationwide protests<\/strong>
In often contentious testimony Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, including sending federal troops to cities including Portland, Oregon.  Barr pushed back against angry, skeptical Democrats who said President Trump\u2019s administration is unconstitutionally suppressing dissent.  The at times contentious, partisan hearing marked Barr\u2019s first appearance before the committee after 18 months in office, bringing him face-to-face with the panel that voted last year to hold him in contempt and that is holding hearings on what Democrats say is politicization of the Justice Department under his watch. Under combative questioning, Barr defended himself but revealed little new information about his motivations, or the Justice Department\u2019s recent actions on policing.  In one viral exchange, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Michigan challenged Barr on why armed white nationalist protesters in Michigan earlier this year didn\u2019t face the same federal response as Black Lives Matter protesters often have.  Barr countered that it was a matter for governors to handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 numbers<\/strong>
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections and deaths.

Latest reported numbers globally per <\/strong>Johns Hopkins University<\/strong><\/a>
Global diagnosed cases: 16,762,605
Global deaths: 660,978.  The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 149,260.
Number of countries\/regions: at least 188
Total patients recovered globally: 9,769,747

Latest reported numbers in the United States per <\/strong>Johns Hopkins University<\/strong><\/a>
There are at least 4,352,304 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.  This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 149,260.  New York State has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 32,653.
U.S. total patients recovered: 1,355,363
U.S. total people tested: 52,985,577

The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 470,762 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million.  That is second only to Sao Paulo, Brazil, which has 487,654 cases, as the most reported cases of any single region in the world.

COVID-19 headlines<\/strong>
FEMA declares COVID-19 death toll is surging<\/strong>
While new cases of COVID-19 are decreasing in the U.S. overall, a new internal FEMA memo obtained by ABC News declares the death toll from the virus is surging.  In the seven days ending Monday, new cases nationwide have decreased 0.6% from the previous week.  However, that same time period also saw a 30.1% increase in deaths from COVID-19, a number that has been increasing steadily in recent days.  The current U.S. COVID-19 death toll stands at 149,260, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University<\/a>.  That number is on track to exceed 150,000 in the next few days.  One week ago today, the number of reported COVID-19 fatalities in the U.S. was 136,466 \u2013 an additional 12,794 reported deaths in seven days.

New federal report lists 21 COVID-19 \u201cred zone\u201d states<\/strong>
A new federal report, dated Sunday, lists 21 so-called \u201cred zones\u201d states where COVID-19 infections are considered precipitously high and that warrant immediate, aggressive action to stop the virus\u2019 spread.  Each red-zone state reported at least 100 or more new cases of COVID-19 infections per 100,000 people in the past week: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.  The report also includes recommendations for each state to address the virus\u2019 spread, actions that include all of the now-familiar steps like wearing a mask, social distancing and frequent hand washing.  It also recommends that public officials move immediately to close high-risk businesses, and increase testing and contact tracing.  The report, which the White House shared with state officials, became public on the same day that President Trump insisted that there are large parts of the U.S. that are \u201ccorona-free,\u201d again touted hydroxychloroquine as an effective COVID-19 treatment despite no evidence to support the claim, and lamented that White House coronavirus task force members Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx were \u201chighly thought of — but nobody likes me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Barr defends law enforcement response to nationwide protestsIn often contentious testimony Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, including sending federal troops to cities including Portland, Oregon.  Barr pushed back against angry, skeptical Democrats who said President Trump\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dont-miss-this"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Getty_12242156707.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1106,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions\/1106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtibfm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}